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Council of Science Editors (CSE) Citation Style Guide

An overview of the CSE citation style used across the sciences.

Citing AI

While the CSE Manual, 9th edition does not include formal guidance on how to cite information generated/used by/from AI, the CSE Editorial Policy Committee and CSE members have some general guidance, specifically with journal publications in mind:

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools (such as ChatGPT or chatbots) should not be listed as authors because a nonhuman cannot be responsible or accountable for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship as outlined in the section on Authorship in the Recommendations for Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications1 and the ICMJE Roles and Responsibilities for Authorship.2 AI-assisted tools are unable to hold or transfer copyright.

Authors should disclose usage of AI tools and machine learning tools such as ChatGPT, Chatbots, and Large Language Models (LLM). CSE recommends that journals ask authors to attest at initial submission and revision to the usage of AI and describe its use in either a submission question or in the cover letter.  Journals should have an explicit policy (preferably included in the Information for Authors) about the use of AI-generated text and images. Journals may want to ask for the technical specifications (name, version, model) of the LLM or AI and the method of the application (query structure, syntax). Ultimately, human authors must be accountable for all aspects of a manuscript, including the accuracy of the content that was created with the assistance of AI, the absence of plagiarism, and for appropriate attributions of such sources.

Source: Jackson J, Landis G, Baskin PK, Hadsell KA, English M. CSE guidance on machine learning and artificial intelligence tools. Sci Ed. 2023;46:72.https://doi.org/10.36591/SE-D-4602-07

In lieu of formal guidelines, The Council of Science Editors recommends treating AI-generated content as personal communication. Personal communication advice is as follows:

  • Cite personal communication in-text only and not in formal end references
  • Include a description of the content that was created/edited, the name of the language model/tool, its version, and the publisher

Example:

I used ChatGPT to help me generate keywords related to my research topic for my database search strategy " (ChatGPT [OpenAI], response to question from author, 10 September 2025).